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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider President Marcos to issue EO on TransCo's transmission facilities buildout for RE projects

President Marcos to issue EO on TransCo's transmission facilities buildout for RE projects

Published Feb 29, 2024 07:49 am

At A Glance

  • The targeted Smart and Green Grid Plan (SGGP) will serve as the anchor for the rollout of transmission facilities that TransCo will be undertaking for RE projects in the restructured power sector.
  • A financing option for the TransCo-led transmission facilities buildout will be via public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.

An Executive Order (EO) mandating state-run National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) to build transmission facilities to underpin the wheeling of generated capacities from renewable energy (RE) facilities will be issued soon by President Marcos.

In an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Climate Smart Ventures forum on the Accelerated Pathways for a Just and Managed Energy Transition in the Philippines, TransCo President and CEO Fortunato C. Leynes Jr. divulged that their company will be “undertaking the construction of transmission facilities for renewable energy that are not yet identified under the Transmission Development Plan.

“There will be an Executive Order that will be coming out – and it will be stipulated in the EO that for transmission facilities that are not included yet in the Transmission Development Plan – specifically for these renewable energy generators, TransCo is already mandated to build and at the same time, tap public-private partnership in terms of financing,” he said.

The TransCo executive indicated there’s no specific timeframe yet on the issuance of the EO by the Office of the President, “but it will be coming out soon… we have just submitted to Malacañang our comments on the draft.”

For these ventures, he emphasized that project financing will be funneled via public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements.

“There are funds available so we might be tapping that facility to finance the construction of these transmission projects for these renewable energy sources,” he stressed.

He. nevertheless, qualified that at this stage, the company is still exploring “different options of financing” for the targeted transmission projects that will be strategically installed for RE facilities – including the gigawatt-scale offshore wind farm ventures.

Leynes explained that the targeted Smart and Green Grid Plan (SGGP) will serve as the anchor for the rollout of transmission facilities that TransCo will be undertaking in the restructured power sector.

“SGGP is the foundation of determining the transmission lines that have to be built – so these are the things we are studying now; and once we already identified them, we also have to determine the priority REs,” the TransCo executive noted.

Leynes expounded “we will enter the picture on building transmission lines; especially if NGCP can no longer work on them as it is already saddled with a lot of delayed transmission projects.”

He stated that the buildout of transmission facilities would take long lead times – from conceptualizing the design as well as the engineering works up to the actual construction and commercial completion of the projects.

But once the EO is out, Leynes specified that TransCo is poised to immediately step up on pre-development works – that way, the construction and eventual commercial operations of the transmission assets would go along with the planned commissioning of the RE generating facilities.

He underscored that the design and the scale of engineering works for the targeted projects shall depend on the specification of the transmission facilities to be installed – whether that will be of the 230-kilovolt (kV); 500kV configuration or if it would entail deployment of submarine cables.

Leynes specified that another option for RE sponsor-firms is to have direct point-to-point connection – or in simple terms, a power plant project that could have dedicated or direct connection to the power grid.

When asked if there are already discussions with system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) so they will not overlap on their functions – fundamentally on putting up the warranted transmission facilities for RE installations, Leynes conveyed “we are talking and we’re going to meet again next week…there are some ‘bumps’, but hopefully, we could smoothen them.”

He added one critical point of deliberation delves with the onward preparation of the TDP -- especially with TransCo’s inclination to gain more active role in planning the expansion as well as enhancements and innovations in the country’s power grid.

Related Tags

National Transmission Corp. RE projects Transmission Development Plan power grid National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) President Marcos
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